House Update

Isn't it cool that it actually looks like a house now?! I really like the gable (the pointy part)! (I actually know what "Anne of Green Gables" actually means now too!

Here's the view from the back. It's the part that's not as scary since it's not as high.

The basement is still waiting to have the plumbing finished and a floor poured.

I helped David put the Typar (the housewrap) and cut out the windows. We hope to order the roof next week!!!

The first of our windows! We were able to get 5 windows that were pulled out of a house. They took several hours of cleaning, but they look much better now!

You don't have to worry about us any more, mom and dad...we have a snow blower! My hope is that the snow will stay away for a while since we have it now. =] David says he is kind of excited for snow now so that he can use his new machine. I'm glad he's excited. I'll glad watch him blow the snow!

A beautiful sunset I captured in the clouds (we can't actually see the sunset behind the trees). Isn't God so creative? What an amazing God we have!

First Day of School

Today is the big day! I feel like I'm sending my boy off to school for the first time, and in a way I am. David heads down to Toronto for the weekend to teach "TCE"- Teaching Children Effectively Level 1. It's a 30 hour course that is really solid in helping children's ministry workers see the need to evangelize along with the tools and practice to actually do it. It's quite the process to be able to teach it and David is working through the final step of it-- having his lesson plans and classes evaluated. I'm very thankful to be past that stage and now just get to sympathize with him and pray for him.

This course spans 4 weekends: Oct 29-30, Nov 5-6, Nov 12-13, Nov 19-20. There are  8-10 students enrolled. Please pray for the students to have the time necessary to put into the course and the homework and practice that goes along with it. The whole goal is to see children come to know the Saviour but it can be easy to lose sight of the importance of that in the midst of a busy life. I get to join in on teaching for two weekends...but because of other things to be done, I can't go this weekend...so in a few hours David will be heading off on his own. I better go pack his backpack suitcase.

A Little Fishy

Random story of the week...
I had a cold, one with a completely stuffed nose. I had bought some fish on sale and thought I would cook it all nice for David after a he'd worked a long day on the house. Upon entering our apartment my kind husband commented "It smells kind of fishy in here." To which I replied, "Well, I am cooking fish." =]

However, when we sat down to eat, I smelled it just a bit and commented that it smelled a little strange. David then informed me that it actually smelt quite bad--not really fishy bad, but rotten bad. We both tried a tiny bit and knew it was officially bad.

That night while I was at a ladies Bible study, our land lord, Ruth, knocked on our door. She asked David I was cooking something different that day. He explained the situation to which she said with relief, "Oh good! I thought there was something dead on our side." I did think that was pretty funny...it was just that bad. A week later, the nasty smell has pretty much cleared out...finally!

Canadian Thanksgiving in the U.S.

 My parents gave me the amazing opportunity to fly to Minnesota for a week to visit!!!! It was a rather sudden thing, but David and the other workers had things covered at the Norfolk County Fair. It was the first time I've been back by myself since getting married almost 2 1/2 years ago.

 The weather was absolutely amazing and hot! I LOVED it! (sorry Stacy) I got to run around with the kids barefoot!

 We had a blast playing the leaves.

 Carving a pumpkin. (Don't you love that Christopher is going at it with his toy saw. It's a good thing it's plastic or the pumpkin would have been completely destroyed in minutes.)

 That's the "yucky" pumpkin face.

 It's amazing how every little girl wants to be a princess. The sweetest thing was seeing my brother dance with his little girl. She even had plastic high heels on. Her big sister was so good about sharing with her too!

 Now here's the real princess...the reason I ended up going to MN. My mom was in a fashion show for Breast Cancer survivors. It's amazing that God has spared her life for 30 years since her first diagnosis.

 My sister was adopted and I was born after mom's first two surgeries. The last reoccurance was when I was in 1st grade...she's been cancer free since! Praise the Lord!

 What a sweetie! She 4 but knows the sounds all the letters of the alphabet make too- she "taught" my mom and I her song. It was so cute. I guess it helps that her dad and mom are teachers.

I got to meet beautiful Elliana and even be there for her baby dedication!

 The diligent little artist.

 Brielle found a nice leaf for me.

..so I put the leaf in my hair. I sure do miss those kids. It was wonderful to see them but the time went by way too fast. 

My sister even made Canadian Thanksgiving dinner for me! Josie called it "Fake Thanksgiving". We did our tradition of saying something you're thankful for and then getting to eat a candy corn. We just did 3 thankful corn (it's 5 at "real" Thanksgiving). It was neat to hear the kids come up with things. I'm thankful for:

1) Getting to go to Minnesota and see my wonderful family

2) My incredible husband David who is so loving and thoughtful

3) Our house that David is building

Plowing Match

 The new Noah's Ark display allowed the kids and their parents to walk through and hear the story of Noah from Mrs. Noah, Noah, and his sons (and sometimes their wives). Throughout the 10 min they also heard the message of salvation through Noah's story. 1525 kids/teens/parents came through last week.

 Beautiful murals were painted on both sides of Noah's ark.

Meet Mr. Noah (one of them). =]

 After going through the exhibit, the kids or teens could get their faces painted.

Be ware of the giant shark that might be lurking outside!

David's Latest Favourite Comic

This is how we build in Canada.

A Floor, Walls and Other Wonders

If you're wondering why the picture is so dark it's because it WAS dark! Thanks to the cool invention of a generator and a string of light bulbs, work can happen even in the dark. It was freaky putting the plywood floor down in the dark though, I have to say. I was the chicken that made David and Andrew walk on the joists to get everything and lay it down while I stayed on the solid part.

I was excited when we came to this part because as I kid I learned how to screw down plywood floors when I helped with the gym construction at our church. Little did I know that one day I would be doing it for my own house!

A few days later the view has already changed! David and I put up the walls by ourselves. I didn't know such things were possible. Another scary experience was holding up the walls, hoping the wind doesn't pick up and push them over the edge before they were braced down. =]

 This will be the view from the kitchen window!

This shows an eventual window (middle) and double door (right), off the living room. The big window is where the dining room will be.

Now that the walls are all up, the next project is the trusses! Yikes! David was excited that each one only weighs 135 pounds.

Do you like our fancy dining table?

 How about the lovely kitchen?

 I was always terrified of the grill, but I have finally overcome my fear and learned how to BBQ!!! I have now "cooked" hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza and leftover casseroles. We got the neatest plate for a shower gift from Heather and Alex Walburg that you can use on the grill. I was waiting until we finally had a grill to try it out. It's amazing! We can expand our meals beyond hamburger and hot dogs now!

Here's a note we found on a board one day. What a cool guest book, eh?

Slingshot Saturday

Last May, the staff of CEFOntario was challenged to consider a new idea in reaching kids. The weekly Bible Clubs of "Good News Clubs" are an incredible discipleship ministry that Child Evangelism Fellowship has run for 70 years. However, in Ontario, Good News Clubs have been declining in number rather than growing over recent years. Yet it's so easy to go with what has worked in the past rather than working to develop something new that may work better.

That is what has led us to consider "Slingshot Saturday" a once a month "mini day of camp" that has been run effectively for several years by a staff member and his church in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Consistently, once a month from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm games, Bible teaching, lunch and various activities are held. Also, once a year the kids have the opportunity to attend a week of CEF Ontario's Camp Good News. The goal is to reach kids that are not being reaching and may come from difficult home situations.

It's scary and exciting at the same time to think about re-working the way we are use to doing ministry. However, it is SO worth the work if it will effectively reach kids with the Gospel and develop relationships through which discipleship can happen.

Please pray with us as we consider launching some of these programmes. Please pray for:

• Wisdom and Direction as to how the Lord would want this to look in our area
• The right location(s)
• Quality volunteers that love the Lord and love kids
• Children that need to hear about the Lord and be loved
• The Holy Spirit will bring understanding to the hearts of the kids

Framing Party

What an encouragement it was to have a bunch of friends and family come over for a framing party! We were so thankful for everyone that was able to make it and sacrifice their Saturday. The rain was an annoying hindrance all day however so not as much was able to be done as we had hoped.

David's Uncle Chris drove over 1 1/2 hours to come and help!

By lunch time enough joists were put up that some plywood could be slapped over to make a dry spot to eat.

Elaina made such a cute picture sitting on a joist happily munching on her chips.

By the end of the day, half of the joists were up!

Elaina, the blanket burrito, was ready to go home with her mommy and brothers after picking up her daddy after lunch.

Leanne, Jen and I had fun stapling Typar on. We decided that we like staple hammer guns. They're very fun (as long as they're not jammed).

There's still light up there!

House Progress

After the ICF was installed we painted it with green sticky goop and then put sticky blue sheets of "Blue Skin" all over the walls to waterproof it. Then pipes were laid down to direct the water and then back-filled. Notice the 6 foot wall from the footing to the top.

 

See any difference?! It's amazing to be able to walk around the edge and inside without being in water and in the midst of tons of frogs.

The back use to be over 6 feet deep! The only sad thing about the back filling was that our cool cement writing got mixed in with all the dirt.

When I saw the front wall go up I finally realized "We are building a house!" It really hasn't looked like one until this point. Do you like our double door and big windows?

Our friend Andrew came and worked with David for Thur and Fri to get things ready for the framing party. They put the knee wall up and the center beam. What an incredible blessing it was that Andrew gave up so much time to help!